TurboGrafx 16

The Turbografx-16, "PC-Engine" in Japan, was a video game console released by Turbo Technologies, a joint venture between NEC and Hudson Soft.

The TG-16 was an 8-bit system (contrary to their misleading ad-campaign), capable of 482 simultaneous colors, released in 1989 in North America. It was in competition with the Sega Genesis. The most notable feature of this console was its thin memory card storage medium, similar to that of the Sega master system. It was also the first console to have a CD-ROM peripheral.

Initially, the TG-16 sold well, but there were a lot of bad quality games. Plus, the CD-ROM peripheral was widely considered overpriced, and hard to find outside of big cities. As a result, the TG-CD sold poorly.

In 1992 because of the failure of the TG-CD peripheral, TTI released the Turbo Duo, which was a Cd and TG-16 hybrid. TTI began printing 'Johnny Turbo' comic-like ads.

They featue Johny Turbo, a crime fighter, pitted agains the evil Feka (rhymes with Sega) who cheats kids out of their hard-earned money. Feka tricked kids into thinking that the Sega CD was a stand-alone console (even thought Sega never actually said this once). Johnny Turbo then came to the rescue saying that the Turbo Duo was the world's only complete CD system.

Johnny Turbo was way over confrontational and actually backfired; their argument was based on a false premise. The Turbo Duo sold poorly in the long run. The system only lasted 4 years.

There was also a portable version, the Turboexpress. It was the most advanced handheld of its time and could play all the TG-16's games, but suffered from horrible battery life and a hefty price tag.